Community Chicken's Post, Refrigerator Pickled Eggs

Check out my latest Community Chicken's Post Refrigerator Pickled Eggs

Community Chicken's Post, Keeping Rooster's Together

Check out my latest Community Chicken's Post Keeping Rooster's Together where I give tips to help roosters get along with each other.

Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen

Hey there, I'd like to expand the book list here on the blog. I have the "Good Reads" page, but I keep forgetting to post new books. If it gets extensive I can organize it into categories or something. Let me know your favorite books and I'll post them here. Doesn't have to be about farming, just anything that strikes your fancy.

I'll start.

I was recently loaned, ok well not so recently, actually I need to get this back to her soon...Anyway...My friend Stacey let me borrow her copy of Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen.
The San Francisco Chronicle calls her "The Julia Child of Ireland." Need I say more?

Love, love, love this book. It's not just a cook book filled with recipes, but like the title suggests, it teaches you "skills" and old fashioned ones at that! Like how to hang game, how to raise chickens to get the best meat, how to butcher things, how to smoke and cure etc. She was "nine years old when electricity came to her village" So she's been there, and lived the techniques she talks about. It's filled with interesting facts, antique approaches, and "what to do's" if something goes wrong. It also has nostalgic little "isms" like "a scant cup" or "handfuls" and a written dialect that makes it extra "Irishy" and quaint. Don't skip the yellow text boxes, she gives some great tips and hilarious stories. 

On my list to read:
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
The Dirty Life by Kristen Kimball

Just finished:
The Bucolic Plague by Josh Kilmer-Purcell
re-read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (One of my classic favorites)

Iron Oak Farm is on Facebook!

I just installed (is that the right word, installed?) anyway, we now have a Facebook "Like" button on the right. It takes a minute to load, (I'm looking into that) But I'm trying to put up interesting facts, links that my fellow farmers send me, cool stuff that I find on the web, plus links to daily posts. Feel free to share, share, share. Photos, stories, dumb jokes that your Uncle Ned tells. Whatever strikes your fancy, or Uncle Ned's? Also, if you have an event in your area that you'd like to promote, feel free to share a link. We have readers from all over the country, so chances are there's someone in your neck of the woods that might be interested. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Iron-Oak-Farm/248949131782316?sk=wall#!/pages/Iron-Oak-Farm/248949131782316?sk=wall

On another note, I've been wondering how all the pumpkin contest entries are doing??? The deer are very thankful that we decided to plant pumpkins this year. We haven't had a chance to get fencing up around them so the few plants that we stuck in the ground are acting as a very nice buffet table. Next year we will work on the garden..... If you have a baby pumpkin hopeful, send us a photo.

It's Official

Zach's mom got us this awesome welcome mat with the farm name on it. Somehow having this in front of the door makes everything more official!

Music to Melt Stress

I've been playing the guitar. We've been so stressed lately with the move and what's going where and when and how. I've always used music as a means to escape, to unwind, and plus I heard this really pretty song by Priscilla Ahn, Dream and wanted to learn it.

I dabble at the guitar, and the violin. I can play a handful of songs well, and even more songs, not so well...But I love it, and it takes my mind somewhere else for a while.

My fingers are getting tougher, so I don't whine as much, or chew on them, or sporadically tell Zach to inspect them and ask him if they feel tougher. And I noticed the stretch of the guitar chords is making the stretching on the violin that much easier. My Grandpa Lompra' grew up in the Upper Peninsula and he played fiddle. Would have loved to have learned from him.

Zach plays too,

see what I mean about the hat? Scary isn't it?

The Blog Guidebook

To my fellow bloggers, I just signed up with the Blog Guidebook. It's a great site that helps promote your blog, and your first add is free! A win, win. Check out the site at http://www.blogguidebook.com/ and sign your blog up today!

Wild Wednesday, Sword Tail Cricket

We are finding all sorts of new wildlife at the house. I'm still trying to get a good picture of our barn swallows. But they're SO fast and they never seem to land. We found this large cricket (I think it's a sword tail) by the pond.

It's about the size of a quarter, maybe a bit bigger.

Our Field

I've been trying to identify the different hay types in our pasture. We originally thought it was alfalfa, but after a talk with our vet and doing some research online, I think the majority of it is a mixture of Orchard Grass, Canary Grass and Indian Grass. The stalks have the signature "rifling" that occurs where the blade folds over. And the tops have that "broken cattail" top.

I'm rather excited that it's not alfalfa as alfalfa is a legume and tends to be too rich for goats to graze on, especially when it's lush and green. We spoke to the neighbor and he explained that once we bail what we have that the alfalfa might creep in. Any of you out there that are hay experts, let me know what you think. This is a whole new world for us.

Be sure to check out the Attainable Sustainable Patchwork Living Blogging Bee. It's a great place to find awesome posts about sustainable living!

Zach's New Toy

Can't believe it's been almost a month since the last post. We've been so busy moving and my computer is still at the old house, so it's been hard going back and forth. I'm so excited, I have my studio almost set up where I can paint, draw, write, do yoga, create and it's a beautiful, inspiring view. I'll get pictures soon.

One new and exciting thing around the farm is the addition of our new tractor. It's a 1949 Allis Chalmers WD. Needless to say, Zach is in heaven.

We're trying to think of a name for her, something quirky and original.  Any suggestions???

I got Zach a hat as an early birthday present. Sort of as a joke. But I must say, the more we get into this, the less cliche's the hat becomes.